State health officials hailed a new study Wednesday showing fewer Californians than ever say they smoke.

The rate of adult smokers statewide dropped to a record low of 11.9 percent in 2010, making California and Utah the only states to reach a federal target to cut smoking rates to 12 percent by 2020, according to a California Department of Public Health report.

“The drop in smoking means that fewer people will see their lives cut short by tobacco,” said Dr. Ron Chapman, department director.

Officials attributed at least some of the drop to California’s aggressive public anti-smoking campaign launched in the late 1980s. While the latest statistics are encouraging, health officials said smoking remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death, killing more than 400,000 Americans annually.

And while adults have reached the 12 percent federal benchmark, high school students are still smoking at a higher rate — 13.8 percent in 2010. The rate of smoking among high schoolers reached a record low of 13.2 percent in 2004 and then jumped to 15.4 percent in 2006. Since then, the rate has again begun to drop.

Middle school students showed a similar pattern, with a record low in 2004 of 3.9 percent, which jumped to 6.1 percent in 2006 before declining to 4.8 percent in 2010.

UCSD cancer researcher Dr. John Pierce, a nationally recognized leader in tobacco smoking and cessation studies, said the pattern could be related to tobacco companies continually refining their cigarette advertising campaigns to appeal to teens. He pointed particularly to a 2007 RJ Reynolds campaign for its Camel No. 9 cigarette.

Pierce led a UCSD study published last year in the Journal of Pediatrics that found teenagers who had a favorite cigarette ad were 50 percent more likely to start smoking. After the start of the Camel No. 9 campaign, which targeted female smokers with its hot pink pack and “light and luscious” theme, the proportion of teenage girls who reported a favorite ad increased by 10 percent to 44 percent. Nearly all cited the new Camel brand as their favorite.

Pierce said he believes plenty of evidence exists to contradict tobacco companies’ assertions that their ad campaigns don’t target teenagers.

“We know they are going to target kids,” he said. “We just don’t know where and how. We have to be vigilant because we’re always playing catch-up.”

Colleen Stevens, chief of the tobacco control media campaign for the state public health department, said the pattern in teen smoking could be related to the price of cigarettes.

“Let’s start with the premise that youth are very price sensitive,” she said. “The more cigarettes cost, the less they will smoke.”

Between 1997 and 2002, tobacco companies raised prices and the state levied a 50-cent tax per pack, she said. The price remained relatively unchanged until 2009, when the federal government instituted a 62-cent per pack tax.

Stevens advised caution over comparing smoking rates between adults and teens, since the state’s definition of a smoker differs for those groups. A teenage smoker is defined as someone who reports having smoked at all during the previous 30 days. Adults are defined as a smoker if they report having smoked 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and if so, currently smoke daily or on some days.

Smoking rates in California have declined since 1985. The state’s anti-smoking education program began in earnest in 1989, shortly after voters approved a 25-cent tax on every cigarette pack in 1988. A nickel from each sale helps fund the California Tobacco Control Program, which includes a statewide media campaign, local educational and enforcement efforts, and programs to help smokers quit.

Stevens said the program as well as laws limiting where people can smoke, have purposefully targeted the entire population rather than just children in order to create a new non-smoking norm in California.

“Our feeling is that we have to simultaneously keep the environment and social norms such that teens and young adults don’t start smoking, while also helping those who smoke to stop,” she said.